RSSLAHORE, Pakistan (UCAN) – Church leaders have demanded justice over the murder of a 12-year-old Catholic girl who appeared to have been tortured before being killed.
A Muslim lawyer and his family have been detained.
The body of Shazia Shaheen was found in a government hospital of Lahore earlier this week. Her funeral was held yesterday at the city’s Sacred Heart Cathedral.
She had been working as a maid at the house of Naeem Chaudhry, a Muslim lawyer, for the past eight months.
Her parents said she had been badly beaten.
“Her nails were pulled out, her jaw and right arm were broken, her body had 16 cuts all over and she had hot iron burns on her back,” Bashir Masih, her tearful father told UCA News.
“Naeem told us that she was sick and was being mistreated.”
Christians’ vulnerability
Anglican Bishop Alexander John Malik of Lahore diocese said at her funeral that the murder highlighted the vulnerability of the poor Christian community.
Around a hundred protesters, including relatives of Shaheen, have been demonstrating outside the Punjab Assembly building.
Christian women made a rope out of their dupattas (scarves) and blocked traffic at Mall Road for four hours on Jan. 23.
They refused to claim the body until Chaudhry was arrested on Jan. 24.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari ordered an investigation and announced 500,000 rupees (US$6,000) in compensation to the victim’s family.
More than 1,000 people packed the cathedral for the girl’s funeral amid tight police security.
Catholic Auxiliary Bishop Sebastian Shah of Lahore, Bishop Malik, who is also moderator of the Church of Pakistan, seven Catholic priests and three pastors conducted the service.
They condemned the murder.
“Such tyranny is against humanity,” said Vicar General Father Andrew Nisari.
“Shaheen, a defenseless child, died of painful torture at the hands of a literate man. We cannot imagine the severe torture she had to suffer. We pray for justice in God’s court.”
‘Authentic’ post mortem report needed
Bishop Malik also expressed his shock at the brutality of the killing.
“Her condition raises many questions and I pray that the doctors present an authentic post mortem report,” he said.
He added that the incident showed the problems facing the poor who are “forced to send their children into child labor for a few thousand rupees.”
According to the Catholic Bishop’s National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) there are more than 10 million child laborers in Pakistan.
“This is not a lone incident of violence where domestic servants are subjected to extreme violence,” said a statement signed by Archbishop Lawrence John Saldanha of Lahore, the commission’s chairman, and executive secretary Peter Jacob.
“Both the provincial and federal governments failed to prevent such incidents effectively. Physical violence meted out to domestic labor is commonplace.”
The NCJP urged the government to enforce the child labor laws in the country and bring the culprits to justice.
PA08626.1586 January 26, 2010 55 EM-lines (476 words)
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